For many Americans, cracking open a diet soda is a small daily treat – fizzy and sweet, with none of the calories or sugar of standard soft drinks.
But a new study suggests that even diet drinks could be turbocharging brain aging.
Researchers in Brazil honed in on aspartame, a sugar-substitute 200 times sweeter than table sugar found in diet soda and sugar-free desserts.
In a study of nearly 13,000 adults, the team found people who consumed about the same amount of aspartame found in one can of diet soda experienced 1.6 extra years of cognitive aging compared to those who consumed minimal amounts.
Even those consuming less than a can’s worth of aspartame experienced 1.3 years added years of brain aging.
And in cognitive tests, this group had more than a 60 percent faster decline in thinking and memory skills, showing a ‘clear difference’ between those consuming the most and least aspartame.
As the brain ages, certain structures begin to break down, including the volume of the frontal cortex and protective myelin covering nerve cells. This leads to slowed processing speed and memory, signs of cognitive decline.
The researchers cautioned, however, that the study cannot prove aspartame directly causes cognitive decline and that conditions like diabetes can contribute to the heightened risk.